#AmherstIBelong

The full exhibitions, sponsored by the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, are on display in the Converse Presidential Hallway and in Frost Library. Photos by Maria Stenzel &Jonathan Jackson ’19.

Jonathan Jackson ’19: “The opponent to being able to feel like you belong is the feeling of alienation. So, to belong somewhere is feeling a complete wholeness in the self. What we have been sort of grappling with on campus, and in the world, is this: Are we looking for acceptance, or are we looking for tolerance?” — More about Jonathan

SabriAnan Micha ’19: “The QRC is my one safe-haven space. I think that’s where I feel like I belong, mostly. I joke a lot that it’s my second home. I spend a lot of time there.” — More about SabriAnan

Esteban Uceda ’19: “What does ‘belonging’ mean to me? That’s a very important question. The idea of belonging is, or can be—in my case it definitely is—rooted in identities, yes.” — More about Esteban

Tomal Hossein ’17: “The Belong Project is a really appropriate or fitting project. I did something during the photo shoot which was super-specific to how I would practice this sort of music in my own time, in private.” — More about Tomal

Nathan Needham ’18E: “I think it’s about home and seeing that Amherst can become a different type of home for students here. I always relate it back to my military experience—it was six years of my life; it’s natural.” — More about Nathan

Debbie Wen ’19: “My first thought is belonging as in ‘someone’s belongings.’ But my second thought is about belonging on campus or someplace. My sister and I grew up in China, and we moved around a bit in China, living in Kunming and then Beijing.” — More about Debbie

Faith Wen ’19: “I guess what comes to mind, about belonging, is home and family. At least for me, that’s what I belong to the most and the longest. But obviously right now I’m not at my home, nor am I completely surrounded by my family.” — More about Faith

Christopher Lewis ’19: “I think the first thing that I think of when I think of the word belong (and I’m not sure if this is a biased perception, but not being a citizen of this country) is: I want to feel like I belong somewhere.” — More about Christopher

Aahnix Bathurst-Williams ’19: “I feel like belonging is associated with feeling at home, but it’s not necessarily the same. I feel like you can belong somewhere where you don’t necessarily feel at home.” — More about Aahnix

Nayah Mullings ’17: “When I think about belonging, I think about being honored and celebrated, and loved, and supported, and challenged in my fullness. Amir’s someone who will do all of those things in my fullness, so taking in all of my identities, taking in all of the places, even though he doesn’t know everything I’ve been through in life or everything, every path that I’ve walked on.” — More about Nayah

Amir Hall ’17: “When I think belonging, I immediately thought of fitting, you know? I thought of family, yeah, but I was also interested in how we fit outside of that, because it’s kind of a given once you come into a family.” — More about Amir

Spencer Quong ’18: “I have written my thesis a little bit about my connection to my home, since I kind of have a complicated relationship with it. I left at pretty young age for a boarding school. I was back this summer for the first time in a long time.” — More about Spencer

Lauren Tuiskula ’17: “Over the course of going into my fifth year here, I’ve seen that, even within small-group belongings, there’s a way that all those smaller groups work together to create a larger scale of belonging.” — More about Lauren

Irisdelia Garcia ’18: “This is a school rooted in systemic issues, because of its background, because of who it originally served. When this school was made, it did not think of people like me. I wasn’t even a thought; I wasn’t even an idea.” — More about Irisdelia

What does it mean to “belong” at Amherst College? It’s a question that is complicated and complex. Feeling that you belong here does not require you to change who you are; in fact, it actually asks you to be your full self—and to help cultivate an inclusive, equitable community with people who are different from you. At Amherst, we aim to connect across difference, to strengthen relationships, to build a community rooted in a culture of caring. To start the conversation, the Belong campaign asked students to describe, through photography and in their own words, their sense of belonging at Amherst. We invite you to join us on the journey of discovering how each of us belongs at Amherst College. — #AmherstIBelong